'We won't tolerate housing fraud' as council chiefs take tenants to court
Four tenants have been taken to court for subletting their homes - in a move council chiefs in Leeds hail as a “clear signal” to combat housing fraud.
Leeds City Council also said proceedings were also brought against a fifth tenant over a number of tenancy breaches, including a form of fraud known as non-occupation.
Each case ended with the granting of a possession order at court, which allowed the council to take back the homes involved so they can be re-let to people on its housing register.
In addition to the loss of their properties, the various defendants were between them ordered to pay more than £12,000 in court costs.
The cases, which went to court between February and June this year, involved two homes in Bramley and three others in Beeston, Middleton and Morley.
In a further case, heard at the County Court in Leeds last month, a former tenant was made the subject of an unlawful profit order, which – under the terms of the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 – requires them to hand over to the council around £4,000 in rent that they illegally accrued by subletting their home in Middleton.
The defendant surrendered the property voluntarily in late 2023 after their fraudulent activities came to light.
Councillor Jess Lennox, Leeds City Council’s executive member for housing, said: “We treat tenancy fraud as an extremely serious matter and always aim to take timely and effective action when we identify wrongdoing of this kind.
“The recent cases are a clear signal of our ongoing determination to ensure that council housing in Leeds serves the needs of genuine tenants, rather than those who seek to exploit the system and line their own pockets.”
The news comes after Leeds City Council revealed a crackdown on improving housing conditions in the private rented sector in Leeds with new measures to drive up the standard of living.
Proposals for the scheme – which will use a system known as selective licensing to more closely regulate landlords in a number of deprived local communities – were originally announced by last year.
Subletting, which is one of the most common types of council tenancy fraud, occurs when a tenant moves out of their home and illegally rents it to someone else.
Other types include Right to Buy fraud – when a person attempts to acquire a council-owned property despite not living there – and housing application fraud, when someone submits false information in an attempt to secure a home.
Non-occupation, meanwhile, occurs when a person who has been granted a tenancy does not use the property as their primary residence.
Investigations into these issues, and others like them, are carried out in Leeds by a specialist council team of tenancy fraud officers.